Zaaheen
Get started

Do you need an AI memory tool, or is a notes file enough?

For one project in one coding tool, a notes file such as CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md is often all you need. It stops being enough when you use several AI apps, when the facts are about you rather than the project, or when the file grows past what the app reads at the start.

By Zaaheen · Last updated 6 October 2026

When a notes file is enough

Many developers say a plain notes file is all the memory an AI needs, and for some jobs they're right. A file is free, you can read every word of it, it lives in the project with the code, and nothing happens to it that you didn't write.

A file is the right tool when:

  • You use one AI app, mostly in one project.
  • What it needs to know is about the project: how to build it, how to test it, what to avoid.
  • You keep it short and up to date yourself.

Claude Code reads CLAUDE.md, Cursor reads its rules, and all three of Claude Code, Cursor and Codex can read an AGENTS.md. For project rules, one AGENTS.md checked in with the code is hard to beat.

Where a file falls short

  • Every app reads a different file, or none. The ChatGPT and Claude chat apps don't read your coding tools' notes files; their own memory lives in each company's account.
  • Facts about you don't belong to one project. How you like answers, the tools you prefer, what you're working on this month: put them in one repository's file and the next project doesn't have them.
  • Someone has to write it. A file only knows what you, or the app, remembered to add, and keeping three apps' files in step is a chore that slips.
  • Only so much is read at the start. Anthropic suggests keeping each CLAUDE.md under 200 lines, and loads only the first 200 lines or 25KB of Claude Code's memory index when a session starts (Anthropic's documentation). Past that, a longer file costs more and is followed less.

Our own files, after five months

We build Zaaheen with Claude Code and keep both kinds of notes, so we counted ours:

Our own Claude Code notes after five months, in lines, against the 200-line guide
Our CLAUDE.md 147 lines Our memory index 155 lines Anthropic's guide 200 lines
Our own Claude Code notes after five months, in lines, against the 200-line guide
OptionLines
Our CLAUDE.md147 lines
Our memory index155 lines
Anthropic's guide200 lines

Source: Zaaheen's own project, measured on 6 October 2026. The 200-line figure is from Anthropic's Claude Code documentation.

Both are close to the line, and they only stay under it because we prune them: one line per memory, details moved into separate files, old entries merged or dropped. A notes file works, and it takes upkeep.

Use both, for different things

The question isn't really file or tool. Keep the project's rules in a file with the code. Keep what's true about you in one memory that every AI app can reach, so it stays out of your project files and you never write it three times.

ChatGPT Zaaheen on your computer Claude Code Cursor Claude Saved once Plain English, no jargon
A preference about you, told to ChatGPT once, is saved to one memory on your computer. Claude Code, Cursor and Claude recall it without any file to keep in step.

Zaaheen is a memory of that kind, for Windows and Mac: your AI apps save what they learn about you as they go, and find it again when it matters, while your memories stay encrypted on your own computer. You can see every memory in the app, and forget any one.